Undergraduate Researcher:
Craig Hossfeld
Advisor:
Observation of animals ability to climb walls
Behavior linked to fiber structures on animals feet
Van der Waals forces create adhesion
Mechanism for Gecko attachment inspired
micro-patterned adhesive surfaces
These tapes came to be known as “Gecko Tape”
Many different fibril designs are possible and
created
Advanced materials company based out of
Saarbrucken Germany
Large focus in micro-patterned surfaces
Formal collaboration established for the
project
Fabrication is difficult
Many ways to synthesize
Soft molding used in our lab
Receive molds from INM
Testing of micro-patterned adhesive surfaces is
not standardized
Focused on better fabrication techniques or
mimicking biological observations
Adhesion studies extremely difficult to compare
Normal adhesion tests have been performed
Research has been focused on Normal Adhesion
testing
Force results are straight forward
Insight to detachment behavior is limited
Allows for detachment properties to be examined
directly
Testing reveals insight into the practical use of these
adhesives
Testing will lead to a more fundamental knowledge of
Gecko Tape adhesion
Design based off of
machines used to
test “common”
adhesive tapes
Moving base to
allow for constant
angle tests
Designed to fit
load frames found
in most materials
labs
Continue research this summer with
NSF-EPSCoR funding
Samples will be created in lab as well as sent
Establish deeper insights into fundamental
mechanisms of adhesion
Peel test samples well characterized in normal
adhesion
Investigate effect of pillar geometry, size, length, etc.
E. Arzt, S. Gorb, R Spolenak, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 100 (2003) 10603
Functional Surfaces. Leibniz-Institut fur Neue Materialen, n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2011.
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